Scott's voter roll purge wins fans, energizes opponents

June 16, 2012|By Anthony Man, Sun Sentinel

Gov. Rick Scott's effort to purge the state's voter rolls of noncitizens has bogged down in the quicksand of dueling court battles, generated intense blowback from Democrats, and proven once again — if we needed a reminder — that Florida is the most contested state in the presidential election.

And it's earning Scott — who remains exceedingly unpopular in public opinion polls — high marks from voters like David Norris, of Fort Lauderdale, Gerald Kerpich, who lives west of Boca Raton, and many more people in South Florida and throughout the nation.

"He wants to ensure that it's a fair election, that nobody votes that's not entitled to vote," said Norris 51, a self-employed web designer and Scott fan. "The way I look at it is, if you're not a citizen of this country, then you should not be allowed to vote and elect the officials who are running this country."

Kerprich, 67, a retiree, said Florida's Republican governor is doing the right thing for the right reasons — and will reap political benefits. "My sense is he believes it's the right thing to do. And the fallout he's taking, he's demonstrating what a strong leader should do."

Not so fast, said Jay Pellis of Coral Springs.

"If this was an open, honest attempt to make the voter registration lists clear and accurate, I support that 100 percent. [But] it looks like a blatant attempt to cut back on who can vote," said Pellis, 55, who is unemployed. "He's just making the whole state look foolish. It looks like we're going after a small criminal with an Uzi machine gun."

"He is trying to push his way onto the national scene to make himself a superhero because he has saved Florida [from] this fantasy fraud. And that's what it is: It's a fantasy fraud," said Scavazzon, 69, a retired teacher. "It's making him and the state of Florida look like a laughingstock. It makes Florida look dumb."

As of Friday, the Scott-ordered purge had turned up 107 noncitizens from the state's list of almost 2,700 possible noncitizen voters. A total of 11.3 million Floridians are registered to vote.

The action has thrust Scott into the media spotlight — he went on FOX News to announce he's suing the federal government — and once again turned the nation's attention to the way Florida conducts its elections. Scott's been basking in media exposure, with the exception of a merciless mocking he received from the "Daily Show's" Jon Stewart, since he had the Florida Secretary of State's Office generate a list of names of registered voters who might not be citizens.

Even though the U.S. Department of Justice decreed that the purge was unlawful coming so close to the state's Aug.14 primary, Scott has hit on an easily understood message that resonates with the public: the need to keep the voter rolls pure by preventing non-Americans from voting.

The other side has a difficult task, observers say. An argument against checking the voter lists can sound like an endorsement of law-breaking by noncitizens. And any time a response is complicated, and requires an interpretation of federal and state law, it's more difficult to sell.

"On a sound-bite level, it sounds very rational," said Charles Zelden, a professor of history and legal studies who specializes in politics and voting at Nova Southeastern University. "But bad ideas can sound reasonable until you look at the details."

Even if the short-term politics benefits Scott, it's a bad long-term move, said Jim Kane, a South Florida pollster and adjunct professor of political science at the University of Florida. A Sun Sentinel analysis found that 66 percent of South Floridians on the state's list of suspected noncitizens are Hispanic.

"That's really not going to sit well with the Hispanic community," Kane said.

Sandra Scavazzon, 69, a retired teacher from Boca Raton, said she's heard the same thing from her son-in-law, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Venezuela. She said he's wondering if he'll get a letter telling him he needs to prove his citizenship.

That won't happen anytime soon. With the legality unresolved as the state sues the federal government and the federal government sues the state, Republican and Democratic elections supervisors, including Brenda Snipes in Broward and Susan Bucher in Palm Beach County, have halted purging. Like the other independently elected county supervisors of elections, they don't report to the governor.

There's no sign of any kind of peaceful resolution to the conflict with everyday voters and elected officials as polarized as they were in 2000, when Democrats charged that then-Gov. Jeb Bush stole the election to get his brother, George W. Bush, installed in the White House.

"What's really going on here is people are fighting desperately to carry the state of Florida. Scott and the national Republican Party are so desperate to carry the state of Florida they'll cheat," said Mark Alan Siegel, chairman of the Palm Beach County Democratic Party.

Palm Beach County Republican Chairman Sid Dinerstein said Democrats are the ones who want to ignore the rules. "Voter fraud is a part of the Democratic strategy," he said.